LAHORE, Dec 27: The powers of pension sanctioning authorities have been considerably curtailed and now no-one could withhold the case of any government servant under the pretext of an inquiry or audit objection.

This was stated by Punjab accountant general Wazir Qureshi while talking at an open kutchery at the AG office on Friday.

Besides the competent officers of the departments concerned, the AG had also been authorized to issue anticipatory pension. Those retired government officers whose pension cases were being withheld by their departments should contact the AG office for getting anticipatory pension, he said.

He said the powers of the pension authorities had been reduced under the president’s directives, facilitating the retired government servants regarding the availing of pension, gratuity and other monetary benefits by them.

Mr Qureshi said the authorities had been blackmailing retired servants by exploiting the provision of no demand certificate. They used to withhold pension cases for months and did not issue retirement notifications by misusing this provision.

He said the president had now directed that pension should be released after an affidavit by the retired officials that in case of any recovery against them, they would deposit the amount. He said it had also been directed that head of departments should start preparing cases of the employees one year before their retirement.

He said previously the time was limited to six months but the departments were not following it. According to the president’s directive, pension cases should reach the AG office or the district accounts offices concerned three months before their retirement.

Mr Qureshi said completion of all inquiries and other relevant documents before the submission of applications for pension by the government servants, was the responsibility of their respective departments’ heads. He asked the accounts offices to ensure payment of pension and others dues to all the retired employees within seven days.

He took a notice of the failure of the treasury office in Lahore to make payments to eight widows of government employees despite the issuance of the order by his office. He said from now onwards pension and commutation should be paid to the government employees or their widows from the AG office. — Staff Reporter